Marshall Wittmann: Donkey or Ass?

I read your post with interest this morning (via Greg Sargent). As a leading light in the Democratic Party and the DLC we need you now, Marshall. More than ever. You’re absolutely right — nobody should listen to us "puerile bloggers and assorted lefties." It’s time for the adults to take charge of the Democratic Party, and you have always done a superb job of casting yourself as the Uber Grownup.

You assert that John Kerry and John Edwards are nothing but political hacks who oppose the war out of pure opportunism. Well, you’re a wise man who clearly knows more than we do. You’ve counseled us over the years to shut up and suck it up and not offend anyone with our "looney lefty" ideas so that you Democrats can retain power. Because consider how bad the alternative is, right? Party unity, go Democrats, blah blah blah. That’s always been your battle cry. In fact, you’ve defended every position you’ve ever taken based on the fact that it was "good" for the Democratic Party. So I know that you only have the best interests of the party at heart at all times.

That’s why I’m waiting for you to speak out, Marshall. There was an awfully good diary over at Kos the other day — crazed leftist site that it is — asking the obvious question, "Why isn’t the DLC condemning Joe Lieberman?":

Joe Lieberman’s campaign has stated they would not support Lamont in the general election if Lamont were to win.

Where are all of the DLC condemnations of this behavior? Why hasn’t the DLC dropped all support for Lieberman after such a move? When can I expect the announcement from Tom Vilsack, Al From, Hillary Clinton, and Tom Carper that they cannot support Joe any longer because Joe is attempting to divide the party, like the DLC so often claims the Left is doing?

It’s time, Marshall. For the good of the party. I’m sure you will be intellectually consistent on this one, because, you know, you’re quite the intellectual. You need to lead us through the wilderness on this one, Marshall. I’m sure this political miasma will part like the Red Sea before your wisdom. It’s up to you to hold the party together in the face of this divisive threat. (And let’s be honest, like Brad DeLong has said, Joe’s punk’d you before, so it shouldn’t hurt too much.)

So let’s have it, Marshall. I know you’re not serious about this Bloomberg nonsense — you’d never break the party and just walk away, not after all the derision you’ve heaped upon everyone within it whose actions you felt were "hurting" it in the past. After all the ground work you’ve done blazing the trail for the future of the Democratic Party, you wouldn’t just cut and run, would you?

Come on, Marshall. You need to take that big stick you use to discipline us lefty wackos and take it to Holy Joe. Draw the line, let him know there are limits and if he leaves the party he’s being divisive just like MoveOn or Michael Moore, your perennial whipping boys, those non-team players.

People are slowly coming to understand what the DLC is. You are a tiny gang of needle-nosed cubicle slaves hired to sell out the genuine political aspirations of millions of people. You have been hired to rush from newsroom to newsroom badmouthing almost every principle your constituents have held for decades, and to propagandize at every opportunity the hopelessness of such ideas as peace, tolerance and ideological backbone.

Jane Hamsher

Jane is the founder of Firedoglake.com. Her work has also appeared on the Huffington Post, Alternet and The American Prospect. She’s the author of the best selling book Killer Instinct and has produced such films Natural Born Killers and Permanent Midnight. She lives in Washington DC.Subscribe in a reader